


Akuze

by Acacophony



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Akuze, Gen, Tragedy, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 06:35:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5324138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acacophony/pseuds/Acacophony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tess Shepard's experience on Akuze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Akuze

“What was that?” Toombs asked. The ground rumbled around them again, making everyone everyone in the unit stagger to keep on their feet.

“I don’t know. Just keep your wits about you,” Shepard’s biotics glowed around her, she was prepared for attack. What could possibly make the whole world shake so? It was like standing next to a bomb going off. She felt it ripple again beneath her feet again. The desert air was tense, anticipation falling over every man and woman. The alien night glittered around them, the only light came from the two moons, and the headlight of tanks and lamps of the garrison- though the latter was so ineffectual in the colored night that Shepard and many others simply switched off their lights. It was easier by moonlight alone.

A soldier called something as the earth shook, looking at his feet. Pebbles, dirt, and other bits of the desert floor were beginning to jump. “It’s getting closer!”  
“Fall back!” Shepard called, making a signal with a frenzied wave, “Clear the ar-” her last word was drown by a loud, monstrous screech. The shriek of an angered soul, with the clicks and echos of alien organs behind the vocalization. The ground gave birth to a hideous, ancient thing. The creature was hundreds of meters high, with an insectile face and a glistening, worm like body. Its scaly armor reflected the moonlight, glittering like jewels.   
“Shit MOVE!” Shepard took off at a run for the nearest tank. Her unit scattered, following her example, though there weren’t enough tanks to go around. A few were stranded outside, unable to run quick enough with the heavy gravity the world gave them.

The creature flexed her powerful body and slammed down onto the nearest tank, crushing it ad all inside. It let out another scream as cannons began to barrage it, scattering and staining its beautiful scale casing. It wiggled obscenely in the air before receding into the earth, as though the hard packed, parched dirt were water. There was no moment of rest or waiting. The ground rumbled, dirt and sand flying up as it burst through again in another place. Shepard loaded the cannon in her tank and fired once more, the shell ripped through the air and struck the alien in one of its eyes. With a final, enraged roar, it toppled down like an ancient and timeless tower. Yellow fluids gushed from the gaping hole where its eye had been as it struggled and flopped, as pitiful as a newborn. It was easy prey for Alliance soldiers now.

Shepard opened the hatch of her tank, and took a good long look around the battle site. Five soldiers lay dead in the dust around them. She switched off her comm, just for a minute, cutting out the distressed chatter of her traumatized unit. In the distance she could hear something. At first it seemed her imagination, the echoing strains of a song. Did someone have a radio or a classical tape? She squinted her eyes, as if that would help her hear better, and put her hand to her ear. It was definitely getting louder. Sounds of violin strings and the raspy breath of a lullaby. It grew louder, and the tune dissipated into the lyrics of the thresher maws. A small vibration began, and it was quickly turning into rumbling. The earth shook so hard that the tanks began to clatter. More were coming, able to smell the blood of freshly fallen.

“Everyone to a vehicle!” She ordered, “Drive!” They needed to get away from this place, before the maws took them. The tanks went west, toward the base, but the angry aliens had them surrounded. One erupted with a screech. It was taller, much taller, than the one they had felled. Its armor didn’t glisten so much, but looked thicker and harder.

Shepard saw it through the scope and felt blind panic rush through her. It leaned down and investigated the dead baby, and then let out a long and angry sound. Leaning over, she swatted a tank with her entire body, sending it flying. It landed on its back and was crushed, its occupants spared the horrors the angry mother was here to wreak. It let out a billowing call, different from before, and a ring of maws surrounded them. Nearly a dozen in all formed a ring around the doomed soldiers.

Shepard fought, fired, and cursed. One by one the headlights of the other tanks darkened. Those who hadn’t made it a vehicle were the first to die, they never stood the chance. There wasn’t a chance to flee until her tank was the only one remaining. If there were survivors, she couldn’t help them now. Guilt gnawed at her as they fled through the forest of maws erupting around them. They were haunting her, following her and her squad until they were a step ahead. Her tank was launched into the air by and erupting maw. She felt the strong pull of gravity, and through her window she saw only the diamonds in the sky. The idyllic moment crashed to the dead soil, the tank stuck on its side and dented.

The maw moved in for the kill, letting it tree like trunk fall onto the still machine and crush it. A hot trickle of blood, or maybe something else, splattered Shepard’s arm. On the second bash, the steel folded around her like playdough. It encased her, broke her leg- but it was structurally stronger this way. It wouldn’t yield again. The maw pounded the tank, electric wires sparking, and a few small fires erupted on it, before the monster lost interest. There was a still moment, and Shepard forced herself to keep breathing rhythmically. She blocked out the pain, concentrating on the in and out of her breath as she listened.

The rumbling came again, growing strong enough to shake her whole body before weakening, and then vanishing. They had passed by and left. Even after the vibration stopped, she could still hear the ominous alien lullaby. She waited until she was sure it was quiet- though she wasn’t sure if she could really hear it anymore, or if it was in her own head.

“Smith? Hosni? Are you alive?” She whispered quietly, afraid of making too much noise. There was no answer. After a moment, she asked again, louder this time, and still nothing.

Finally she tried to move. Extracting herself from the steel cocoon was an arduous process. She found a small exit near her feet, and began to wiggle out. The hull had been punctured and the artificial gravity wasn’t working anymore. The full weight of Akuze’s heavy atmosphere weighed upon her, making movement difficult. She had to dislocate one shoulder to squeeze out from the wreckage, and forfeit most of the weapons she’d been wearing. Stumbling, she fell from the tank onto the pressure sensitive nursury of the maws. She froze, heard pounding from terror as she thought she heard one hissing. A drop of water fell from on her visor. Rain. It was only the rain. Slowly she got to her knees. She reached into the steel womb of the wreck and found a pistol. Good enough. Carefully she worked it free from the rubble, wondering how she’d managed to squeeze her body through such a small opening.

Shepard made sure the pistol was loaded and unlocked, but she didn’t dare fire a test shot. Looking around, she saw the foothills of Akuze’s mountain range nearby. She wanted to run for it, but her leg could barely take the walking in this high gravity. Instead she moved slowly and deliberately. Shepard got down on her hands and knees, distributing her weight as evenly as possibly over the pressure sensitive ground. She crawled painfully, listening and feeling for any indication of the maws’ return.

They did not come back. Finally she made it to the safety of the hill, where she could stand and limp once again. Once she reached the hillcrest, she sat down to fix her comms. “This is lieutenant Shepard. Is anyone alive out there? I’m injured but stable, on the hill about a kilometer south of the attack site. Repeat. Is anyone alive out there?”

She was greeted with silence.


End file.
